Tag Archives: Adult Language Learners

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Someone gave me a free (swag) water bottle the other day–looking at the picture on the box, I could see that the design was one that seems to be pretty popular these days. With a somewhat subdued design that wasn’t dominated by a corporate logo splashed everywhere (hidden here), it seemed like a keeper. Before throwing out the box, however, I thought it would be a good idea to check if I was going to be able to wash my water bottle in the dishwasher.

That’s when it happened– I picked up the box and….found myself looking at the French version of the description and instructions. The language learning mind games had begun.

As someone who likes to speak French sometimes (still a rusty B2), I was essentially faced with a question: read the French, or take the easy route and flip over to the English?

A while back, I shared a link to a funny Stéphane Guillon video—when I was actively preparing for DELF, I really enjoyed his style of delivery (even if I didn’t understand everything he said). At the time, watching him read his ‘episodes’ for the radio made me wish it were possible to have a copy of his speaking notes.

Fast-forward to a couple of weeks ago—–while searching my local library for audiobooks for my son, I was playing around with the search filters and ended up looking at children’s audiobooks in different languages. Through that process, I was pleased to discover that they had a copy of a children’s audiobook read by Stéphane Guillon (honestly, I can’t say enough about the fantastic Edmonton Public Library).

For me, being able to have both the audio/visual and a copy of the script/text is ideal— if you want to read along, you can do that; if you want to listen once, and then practice reading aloud on your own, you can do that; if you want to try and transcribe a couple of sentences, and then check how well you did against the original, you can do that too.

As one of the so-called BRIC countries, Brazil has figured more prominently in the news over the last few years. With Brazil hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2014 (in 12 different cities), and then Rio de Janeiro hosting the Olympics in 2016, i’m sure that we’ll all know quite a bit more about the country by the time these events are over in a few years.

Closer to my day-to-day life working on a university campus, it’s also worth noting that the Brazilian government is currently in the middle of an ambitious program called “Science without Borders”; by 2015, the scheme will see 100,000 Brazilian university students (undergraduate through post-doctoral) head overseas–the Canadian government estimates that as many as 12,000 of those students will come to Canada.

I could come up with a few more ‘reasons’ to learn Brazilian Portuguese, but the truth is that it simply sounds cool to my ears. If I can learn enough to have a decent conversation then I’ll be happy. I don’t have a particular timeline in mind— just hobby/fun.

I’ve been checking out Brazilian movies and music through my local library, and I’ve enjoyed getting started with Duolingo‘s Brazilian Portuguese beta-offering. We’ll see how it goes!

What makes a few of these difficult (I’m sure there are better examples), is the cultural context in which they rest. Added to that, the consequences of ‘getting it wrong’ tend to rattle your confidence and, over time, it get’s harder and harder to step out of your comfort zone.

Which part is ‘hardest’ will be different for everyone; however, in terms of being able to think on your feet in a professional context, I think the fourth one is especially valuable— and probably the one over which you have the most control (or at least practice).

So many arguments about ‘the best way to go’ for language learners at different levels…

The tricky part, of course, is that what works for one person might be totally off-base for you.

Ultimately, we can only really judge ‘what works’ for ourselves—if you find yourself arguing, it’s probably a sign that you should try something different…… conversely, what works for you may not work so well for someone else….. “learn and let learn” I guess.

The designers of most language tests (DELF, JLPT, HSK, etc.) are trying harder and harder to make test scores reflect real world communicative ability; are you aiming beyond standard language tests (that really only mark the beginning of the next stage of learning)?

From the TED video description: “Duolingo will be a revolutionary product in which millions of internet users from around the world will work together to translate the internet and learn a new language at the same time. All for free.”

It’s always amazing to listen to people who seem to have a knack for making your native language come to life, even when they’re only saying a few sentences. That was the thought that came to mind when I stumbled upon an old clip of James Earl Jones presenting Sean Connery with an award, while giving eloquent praise to Sean Connery’s voice as one that “inhabits time” . It’s a great little video (see below) because James Earl Jones, of course, is also a legendary ‘voice’ of the North American entertainment industry.

When I think of interesting voices in languages that I’ve studied, one ‘voice’ that comes to mind is the legendary Chinese storyteller Shan Tian Fang (单田芳). I remember first hearing him on the radio while riding in taxis when I lived in Xi’an. I always enjoy trying to imitate voices so, after hearing his unmistakable voice several times, even though I couldn’t speak much Chinese, I remember asking someone at work “[imitating radio voice] Who’s the guy on the radio that talks like this?” [/imitating]—my colleague was almost in tears laughing at my “Shan Tian Fang” voice speaking in English:)

As I recall, my colleague then wrote down Shan Tian Fang’s name in Chinese so I could ask for a DVD at the video store, and told me what radio station I could tune into if I wanted to listen to more of his epic tales.

Anyway, the point that I wanted to raise was that I think it’s important to find examples of people who can poetically speak the languages we’re trying to study. Even if you don’t ‘study’ these actors, it’s always a good idea to have a sense of what an eloquent speaker sounds like in your target language. With so much audio and video available online (even for free) these days, it’s never been easier to explore old tv, movies and even commercials in any language.

I don’t count myself as a hyperpolyglot(!), but I can definitely agree that the key to successful language learning is simply finding a way to enjoy the process. Judging from the book review in The Economist, this seems to be part of the message of Michael Erard’s new book, Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners.

from the review: “Hyperpolyglots may begin with talent, but they aren’t geniuses. They simply enjoy tasks that are drudgery to normal people. The talent and enjoyment drive a virtuous cycle that pushes them to feats others simply shake their heads at, admiration mixed with no small amount of incomprehension.”

If you’re an active language learner, are you on an upward spiral, or are you stuck in the language-learning doldrums? What kinds of things do you enjoy doing that other people might think of as ‘drudgery’?

I had previously seen clips of him talking about CAPTCHA / reCAPTCHA; however, in the Spark interview (and the TED talk), he goes on to discuss his latest project, called Duolingo. It’s hard not to get excited about what the project (still in beta) promises: a marriage between crowdsource translation and language learning.

If you want to skip directly to the part where he talks about the research questions that led to Duolingo, skip to the 8m37s mark. I wonder how long the waiting list is to participate in the beta?

[update March 24th, 2012: received invitation to participate in Spanish or German Duolingo beta. I´ve tried the first couple of Spanish lessons, and I can already tell that Duolingo is going to be very addictive!]

“Duolingo will be a revolutionary product in which millions of internet users from around the world will work together to translate the internet and learn a new language at the same time. All for free.”